Filling the Gap with PowerPivot for Excel
PowerPivot for Excel takes advantage of technologies that are a part of SQL Server 2008 R2, to enable an information worker to manipulate, filter, and sort millions of data rows on a commodity PC. Because of this, PowerPivot for Excel is uniquely positioned to fill the gap between the corporate data store and other related data, which is required for a complete decision picture. Data can be combined from any of the sources below into a single PowerPivot for Excel solution, for analysis without knowledge of Structured Query Language (SQL) or Multidimensional Expressions (MDX).
- SQL Server relational database
- Microsoft Access database
- SQL Server Analysis Services
- SQL Server Reporting Services (SQL 2008 R2)
- ATOM data feeds
- Text files
- Microsoft SQL Azure
- Oracle
- Teradata
- Sybase
- Informix
- IBM DB2
- Object Linking and Embedding Database/Open Database Connectivity (OLEDB/ODBC) sources
- Microsoft Excel
This variety of connections from PowerPivot for Excel to data sources means data that has not yet been included (or may never be included) in the corporate data store is no longer an obstacle for Information Worker analysis. Data from a corporate data mart hosted in SQL Server, can be combined with a text file from a supplier and a spreadsheet maintained by the accounting department. The only limitation on the Information Worker is the ability to relate the disparate sources; otherwise PowerPivot for Excel will connect to the sources and transport data into the PowerPivot data store.